Saturday, April 26, 2008

Bodies Revealed

I went to the Bodies Revealed exhibition in Sacramento today. The display warrants a feminist critique.

There were virtually no full female bodies "revealed." There was a display in the "reproduction" section where people could see the female reproductive organs. However, out of all the full bodies revealed I only remember seeing one woman, and her body was displayed in half sections. I noticed that women and girls surrounded the display of female reproductive organs with curiosity. One little girl said "did we finally get to the women's section?"

The exhibit should be called "Male Bodies Revealed." The exhibit had so much potential, but to me it was just another example of male dominance.

NOTE: Ethical concerns have also been raised about how the bodies in the exhibit came to be donated. I was not aware of this controversy until after viewing the exhibit!

1 comment:

You mentioned the controversy about how the bodies came to be in your post--my understanding was that the bodies were (possibly) of executed prisoners. Maybe the lack of female bodies reflects the origin of the bodies?